


Pressure

by fineh



Series: Line Of Dialogue [4]
Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Break Up AU, F/M, business!farkle, teacher!Riley, this whole series is angsty, yeah this is somewhat angsty sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 19:33:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8257877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fineh/pseuds/fineh
Summary: "Don't listen to them. Don't you EVER listen to them."In which they aren't diamonds.





	

**Author's Note:**

> posting for archive purposes

"Why are you even still with me?"

"What?" The question catches Farkle off guard, he drops his briefcase to the ground and shrugs off his suit jacket.

"You heard me," Riley stands in the foyer, hugging herself, looking smaller than he's ever seen her. "Why are still with me?"

"You're my fiancé, and you're about to become my wife." Farkle loosens his tie and turns and hangs it next to his jacket before flashing her a smile. He points at the glittering diamond on her left hand. "I bought you a ring and everything," He jokes. She doesn't crack a smile.

There's a reason he works with numbers and not people.

"Besides that."

He scratches his head. "Besides the fact that I love you, have always loved you, and will love you until the day I die?"

"Yeah," She agrees, "besides that."

He pauses a moment then tilts his head, "Something's bothering you."

She shakes her head, "No, I just want you to answer the question."

He moves away from the door, "Something's bothering you and I want you to tell me what it is." She looks away. "Riley," He reaches out tentatively, grasping her warm hand tightly. "What's wrong?" She stares past him, her eyes focused on the wallpaper they picked out together. He runs his hand over her thin fingers.

"Do you ever feel like you settled?" She keeps talking not giving him a chance to answer her abrupt question. "That's what people think. They think that you settled for me. I'd never thought about it like that but now it makes sense. You're a millionaire and I'm just a lowly kindergarten teacher."

"That's ridiculous." If anything she was the one who settled. He wasn't the only millionaire who had wanted her heart. But she'd chosen him and he'd never questioned it. Neither had she, until now.

"Is it really Farkle? Forbes doesn't think so." A magazine appears out of nowhere and is slammed into his chest. "They seem to think that you can do better than me. And honestly, they're not wrong." She strides away leaving him dumbfounded. He doesn't even bother opening the magazine instead tosses it behind him, following her clicking heels into the living room.

"Riley, I don't care what some ratty magazine has to say about our relationship. I didn't settle for you. If anything it was you who settled for me." He sits down next to her on the couch wrapping an arm around her rigid frame. "You forget you're not so far behind me. All I have is money and two parents who still insist that they're fine. I go to work at a job I hate because it's been my destiny from the day I was born."

"You, you have everything else. You're Riley Matthews. Your parents are Cory and Topanga. You have a job you love. Your kids love you." Not to mention some of the dads. "So don't listen to them. Don't you EVER listen to them." He places his fingers under her chin, lifting her head gentle but firm. "There's no way I could ever find someone who would come even remotely close to replacing you. I chose you before all of this." He motions with his free hand to the big space that is their apartment, it isn't ostentatious but it isn't shabby either. "Way before money meant anything. I chose you when you were a princess and I was a vampire. We're an unlikely pair but we work Riles. We work."

She sits stiffly, "It's hard not to feel this way. We got engaged young," Farkle disagreed, 23 wasn't young, not by most standards. Riley was still talking, "and even before that we were always together. We never got to meet other people." She says it like she's actually considered it. Like she's actually considered packing her bags.

The knot that's been forming in his stomach lodges itself in his throat. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

She looks him dead in the eye, "I think we should break up."

"You're joking, please tell me you're joking Riley." Her amber eyes are full of sorrow and the only punchline here is him. She slips out from under his arm. "Riley!"

He knows he should chase her. Tell her that she's being unreasonable. That the idea of them seeing other people is completely insane. He doesn't need to date half of Manhattan to know that she's the one for him. She's it. But his muscles refuse to move. He's still sitting on the couch when she reappears with a suitcase.

"Riley," He's on his feet holding out a hand to stop her. "Can't we talk about this?"

She stops a little out of reach, the purple suitcase stops with her.

"There's nothing to talk about. I'm tired of feeling second best. I come home splattered in paint," she motions at her outfit, "And you come home smelling like money."

The gold cufflinks burn at his wrists, "You're exaggerating."

"Maybe I am." She agrees her hand tightens around the handle, "but I can't help feeling this way."

He'd always known Riley was terribly insecure even more so than him but he'd never thought it would be their downfall.

"And I do think we need to see other people. I need to know who I am outside of us." She raises a trembling hand and tugs on her ring. He can't look. Can't watch her slip off the ring he'd worked so hard for during college. Money that hadn't been earned through his father. Can't watch her destroy the memory of the happiest day of his life.

So he closes his eyes. Maybe when he opens them he'll find out that this is all just a horrible, horrible dream.

He opens his eyes, she's still standing in front of him, disheveled and tearful, the suitcase waiting at her feet. It's not a dream, it's real life and he hates it.

The princess cut diamond is pressed into his palm. He doesn't want to take it, wants to get down on his knees and beg her not to leave him, but he does anyways. Closes his fist over it disbelief and confusion written over his face.

"This isn't the end." He's not going to hold his breath. No one ever comes back for Farkle Minkus. She gives him a kiss on the cheek, squeezes his arm, then walks right past him and all over his broken heart.

She's at the doorway when Farkle makes his last appeal. "I love you."

She pauses right next to the discarded magazine, his face beams up her. She looks down, up, then gives him a rueful smile that wavers the longer she looks at him.

"I love you too." His heart soars, she glances again at his polished spread, "But you deserve more."

He doesn't hear the door close over sound the shattering of his heart.

The ring lies lifelessly in his hand.

He can't bring himself to throw it. He isn't his mother. He just stares at it.

All this pressure and all they got was dust.

He finally allows himself to collapse.

They'd turned to dust.

 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [tumblr](http://finehs.tumblr.com)


End file.
